vBindex v3.0.0 RC5

[high]vBindex v3.0.0 RC5[/high]

I happy to announce the fith release of vBindex for vBulletin 3 here at vBulletin.org and also the first Offical vB3 Hack here . This is the 9th release of vBindex for vB3 and there are few known problems currently. This release works with vB 3.0.0 Gamma, vB 3.0.0 RC1, vB 3.0.0 RC2, vB 3.0.0 RC3, vB 3.0.0 RC4 and vB 3.0.0.

[high]Features[/high]

The following are the features that are presently avalible in vBindex, those marked [high]*NEW*[/high] have been updated since vBindex 2.1 and those marked [high]*NEW*[/high] have been updated since Pre-RC2 was released and those marked [high]*NEW*[/high] have been added since RC2 and those marked [high]*NEW*[/high] have been added since RC3.

• News:
  • News (taken from a specified news forum), with vBcode, Smilies and optional news posters avatar;
  • [high]*NEW*[/high] Improved avatar system for news posts;
  • [high]*NEW*[/high] Option to have sticky threads in the news forum sticky on vBindex;
  • [high]*NEW*[/high] Option to limit the number of characters in news posts;
• Side Blocks:
  • Easy Administration:
    • [high]*NEW*[/high] All side blocks can be moved from within the ACP, no template edits needed!;
    • [high]*NEW*[/high] Custom blocks, add unlimited custom side blocks and control them all from the ACP;
    • [high]*NEW*[/high] Support for right, left and dual side blocks;
    • [high]*NEW*[/high] Each side block can be expanded/contracted just like the forums, QRB, post rules etc on the forum;
      [high]*NEW*[/high] Dynamic side blocks via a special PHP Include type system (vbindex_customblock_php);
  • Latest Threads:
    • [high]*NEW*[/high] More functional and faster new threads and posts;
    • [high]*NEW*[/high] Link to first unread post if the user has not read the thread yet;
      [high]*NEW*[/high] Ability to have the latest threads under the news with more details;
  • [high]*NEW*[/high] Online user list, with buddies and invisible users marked:
    • [high]*NEW*[/high] Option to show users online in the past 24 hours;
    • [high]*NEW*[/high] Online users block can be switched off;
  • Integrated Welcome Panel:
    • [high]*NEW*[/high] Option for detault avatar in the Welcome Box for members without an avatar and Guests;
  • Fully integrated Shoutbox:
    • [high]*NEW*[/high] Scrolling shoutbox option;
    • [high]*NEW*[/high] Allow users to delete own shouts if option is turned on;
    • [high]*NEW*[/high] Select which usergroups can delete any users shouts;
    • [high]*NEW*[/high] View all shouts, a full page shoutbox built it;
    • [high]*NEW*[/high] Option to show disabled postshout area to unregistred users;
    • [high]*NEW*[/high] Order shouts in either direction;
      [high]*NEW*[/high] Limit the length of shouts;
  • Poll, with the option to select a random poll from a given set of forums;
  • [high]*NEW*[/high] Calendar:
    • [high]*NEW*[/high] Links to events;
    • [high]*NEW*[/high] Option to show weekends and dynmically adjust the side bars to the correct size;
  • [high]*NEW*[/high] Todays birthdays;
• Templates & Phrases:
  • [high]*NEW*[/high] Fully phrased, both the vBindex Options and the front end are 100% phrased;
  • [high]*NEW*[/high] 100% Valid XHTML 1.0 Templates.
  • [high]*NEW*[/high] Templates/Phrases installed during install/upgrade;
• General:
  • [high]*NEW*[/high] Thread subscription icons for news and latest threads;
  • [high]*NEW*[/high] Global and user specific ignore list throughout all items;
  • Will work 100% outside of your forums directory;
  • Fully integrated into the Admin CP, change all options there!
  • Very easy to customize, just edit/add templates;
  • Capable of operating a multi-paged site; (Extra Page Tutorial)
  • [high]*NEW*[/high] Dynamic PHP Driven Extra Pages via Templates; (Extra Dynamic Page Tutorial)
  • [high]*NEW*[/high] Optimised code;
  • [high]*NEW*[/high] Use date/time option (Today/Yesterday and Detailed) specified in vB Options;
  • Only 5 queries with everything switched off, and still only 13 with all options turned on, thats 5 queries less than our nearest competitor!
  • [high]*NEW*[/high] Improved install, easy onscreen instructions that even new hackers should be able to follow and have vBindex working quicky;
  • [high]*NEW*[/high] Compatible with vBwar for vB3 when its released.
  • [high]*NEW*[/high] Admin Help system, gives help with all the vBindex options in the ACP.
  • [high]*NEW*[/high] Uninstall/Re-Install System.

[high]Installation/Upgrade[/high]

See the README_1ST.htm file included in the zip for more detailed install instructions and details of where to upload the files. Then point your browser to http://www.mydomain.com/forums/admin/vbiupgrade.php.

Changes Since vBindex 3.0.0 RC4

vBindex 3.0.0 RC4 was released about a week ago, RC5 has just a few changes and is expected to be the last release before vBindex 3.0.0. Changes include fixing of an XHTML issue in the custom block templates; admin help system added; ability to restrict the length of shouts.

[high]Support[/high]

Support will be given here in this thread ONLY. [high]Support *WILL NOT* be given via PM/Email/IM.[/high]

[high]************************************************[/high]

vBindex is Copyright MMII - MMIV Winter Systems, you may not distribute in part or whole any portion of the source code (apart from in this thread) or any file included in the zip (Unless you are posting a language translation of vbindex_phrases.xml in this thread). Portions Copyright MM - MMIV Jelsoft Enterprises Limited. Both the Jelsoft vBulletin and the Winter Systems vBindex Copyright notice in the footer must stay in place for any page powered by vBindex.

[high]************************************************[/high]

[high]vBindex is *FREE*, please have the courtesy click install if you use this hack, thank you[/high]

RC3 Build 7: 719
RC3 Build 8: 377
RC3 Build 10: 486
RC4 Build 5: 107
RC5 Build 5: 87

[AlexanderT]

Thanks burnz, small mod, but VERY useful

Originally Posted by burnz

a small suggestion for the vBindex

Template: VBINDEX

Find:

<table cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="$stylevar[tablewidth]">

Replace:

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="$stylevar[tablewidth]" style="margin-bottom:3px">

Find:

$home[leftside]

Add after:

<td width="10">&nbsp;</td>

Find:

$home[rightside]

Add before:

<td width="10">&nbsp;</td>

this will make the table body align with the navbar...

[NTLDR]

Originally Posted by SilverDawn

I noticed that when I:
Enable News Posters Avatar -->Yes

It will post the avatar in the Welcome Box, but when it isn't enabled the Welcome Box avatar doesn't show up. Perhaps this only happens with the news poster's account...

What version of vB are you using? And do you store avatars in the database or as files? And is your avatar a custom one or a pre-defined avatar?

[SilverDawn]

Sorry,

• We run vb3,
• We store the avatars in images/avatars and import them into VB through the admin panel.
• It was a predefined avatar that I had previously uploaded to the images/avatars directoy and I imported it using the admin panel.

[Skyline_GT]

Great stuff

[Pseudomizer]

Originally Posted by Feanor

Use the url to the smilies, instead of the path - worked for me.

Hello ? This can't be true. I have to manually edit all the 60 Standard Smilies ? This can work for some people but we proudly present 1001 Smilies on our domain. How should i handle this please ? I do not want to manually edit 1001 + 60 Smilies on my own.

Hack creator ? Could you please take one action item to find a better solution here for this problem ?

Hint: The old vbhome lite version had a replacement variable like {imageshome} for each style which solved this problem. But with your hack this does not work yet.

Any comments ?

Cheers,

[Pseudomizer]

Addition to my last request:

Performance is also a big thing here. For every http:// link in your source code the client browser opens a complete new session over http. This is a big performance overhead for our amount of smilies. Please help to find a better solution.

Thanks.

Cheers,

[NTLDR]

A script has already been released in this thread by Natch to automatically change all the smilie URLs.

[AlexanderT]

NTLDR, instead of having the user alter his smilies, have you thought of applying a regex on the text containing smilies (add the full url dynamically to them) before "you eval" the templates with it?

[Pseudomizer]

Originally Posted by AlexanderT

NTLDR, instead of having the user alter his smilies, have you thought of applying a regex on the text containing smilies (add the full url dynamically to them) before "you eval" the templates with it?

Thanks. You got it.

NTLDR ? The main reason for not willing to alter all the smilies to the full URL is the performance issue. Again ... if you alter all smilies to http://blablabla/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif from the original /forum/images/smilies/smile.gif you increase the connections to the server dramatically.

I hope this has made my problem clearer. Do you know what i am talking about now ?

Cheers,

[bobII]

Great hack! But I am having one problem... I upgraded from vb 2.3.4 to vb 3.0 today and everything works fine except vbindex will not display the text from my 'news' posts... I checked the length and it's set to display 150 characters. What could be wrong?